Contents

Summary

Jonathan turns against his son, Lana becomes a sexy flirt and Pete sets out to settle a score with Lex. They all exhibit unusual behavior after coming into contact with a strange, toxic flower - and there appears to be no antidote to the flower's poison.

Recap

James Beels is racing along the road with a large yellow flower in the seat next to him. He's on the phone very eager to tell Lionel Luthor that he has found something. When the secretary won't pull him out of his meeting, he gets very agitated, throws down the phone, and steps on the gas. When he catches up with Jonathan Kent, he sounds the horn, flashes his lights, and rams Jonathan's car in a rage. The road is narrow and before Jonathan can pull over, he tries to pass on the right, hits an obstruction and flips his car. Jonathan pulls over and drags Beels from the car just before it explodes. The flower sprays him in the face.

Dr. Hamilton arrives at the Luthor Mansion to report that James Beels stole one of his flowers after helping him move some equipment. The Nicodemus flower has been extinct for 100 years but he has used meteor fragments to irradiate the dormant seeds.

Jonathan Kent is feeling the influence of the Nicodemus flower.

Clark comes home to find his parents kissing in the kitchen. Martha admits that Jonathan has been acting strangely every since he got home. He grabs a beer from the fridge and asks Clark if he wants to watch the football game. He blows off his chores and wipes the beer bottle on the curtain (instead of using a towel). Lex Luthor visits to ask if Jonathan is all right and Jonathan goes on an angry tirade about how he hates the Luthors then leaves to go take a nap as Clark and Martha look on in shock.

The next day, Clark tells Pete Ross about his father's strange behavior. Pete reveals that he hates Lex because his father swindled his family out of their creamed corn factory twelve years ago. He never mentioned it before because he trusted that Clark would see for himself that he is bad news. Chloe Sullivan is doing a poll for the newspaper, asking everyone what his or her deepest desire is. Pete says that he would make out with a beautiful girl. Lana says that she would climb the windmill out in Chandler's Field.

Clark stops his father from entering the bank.

Back at the Kent Farm, Jonathan continues to act strangely. Martha notes that he has a high fever. When the phone rings, it is Jim Alexander over at Smallville Savings and Loan, calling to turn down Jonathan's loan application. Jonathan picks up the phone and says that he's going to have to turn down his loan to his face. He's next seen driving erratically on his way to the bank. He nearly hits two pedestrians. Clark happens to be walking down Main Street, and he intercepts his father before he walks in the bank with a shotgun. They struggle a bit, and Jonathan shoots Clark in the chest. Of course, Clark is unharmed, but Jonathan collapses to the ground.

At the Smallville Medical Center, Jonathan is showing the same symptoms as James Beels, who just slipped into a coma. That night, Chloe and Lana search the site of the accident for something that might have infected both men. Chloe snaps pictures while Lana goes into the woods. Lana finds the hula dancer figurine that sat on Beels' dashboard. Then the flower rises up from the ground and sprays her in the face.

Lex confronts Hamilton about the flowers.

At Hamilton's lab, Lex Luthor confronts Hamilton about his experiment. Lex has learned that a strange contagion struck Smallville (the Morley Settlement) in 1897. A priest who witnessed the scene left a diary which described how the settlers began acting out of character. He claimed a local flower was to blame. It is this flower that Dr. Hamilton has resurrected from extinction in the hope that the toxins within might have other applications. Lex orders Hamilton to pack up one of the flowers so that another team in Metropolis can study it and find an antidote for Jonathan Kent.

Lana arrives at school dressed to kill.

At school the next day, Lana arrives dressed to kill, wearing a black miniskirt and boots. She tries to convince Whitney to skip class with her, but he refuses, so she finds Clark and drags him to the swimming pool. She strips down to her bra and panties and dives in. When she can't convince Clark to join her, she kisses him and then pushes him in fully dressed. She slips away without getting into trouble just before Principal Kwan finds Clark treading water.

Clark tells Chloe about Lana's strange behavior and they guess that the site of the accident is the only thing that Beels, Jonathan and Lana all have in common. They can't figure out why Chloe isn't affected, but they do find an image of Dr. Hamilton in the photos that Chloe took at the site of the accident, so they decide to go talk to him. When Chloe arrives at Dr. Hamilton's lab, he successfully evades her questions.

Clark saves Lana from a nasty fall.

At the Talon, Lex is on the phone demanding results from his team investigating the flower, when Lana walks in and gives everyone the afternoon off. She fails in her attempt to seduce Lex, so she steals his car and heads for the windmill. Clark arrives at the Talon just as Lana is speeding away. He catches up with her climbing the windmill in Chandler's Field. Halfway up, Lana begins to feel faint and falls. Clark catches her and rushes her back to the hospital where Jonathan has just slipped into a coma. Lex pledges to Martha to do everything he can for Jonathan.

Back at school, Chloe reports that she saw the Nicodemus diary in Dr. Hamilton's lab. She recounts the same history mentioned earlier by Lex to Hamilton, but adds the detail that the cavalry torched the entire site in an effort to destroy all the flowers. Pete has found a paper that Hamilton wrote six years ago (c. 1996) about how meteor fragments might be used to irradiate dormant plant cells, so they guess that Hamilton brought back the Nicodemus, but they also know that Lex is involved. Chloe reveals that Lex checked out The Nicodemus Diary and that Lex had something to do with bringing the flower back from extinction. When Clark confronts Lex, he is upset until Lex admits that he was investigating the Nicodemus flower but denies knowing Dr. Hamilton.

Chloe and Pete sneak into Hamilton's lab to investigate. Pete knocks over one of the jars containing a flower and is infected by the contagion. He tells Chloe that she is beautiful, and that she ignores him because she only has eyes for Clark. Pete rants that Clark is probably hanging out with his new best friend, Lex Luthor. Pete finds a handgun in Hamilton's desk and points it at Chloe until she hands over her car keys so that he can go after Lex.

Pete turns the gun on Lex as Clark arrives.

At the hospital, Beels has died and Jonathan's condition has not improved. Martha recounts to Clark how they first met at Metropolis University. Chloe arrives to tell Clark that Pete has been infected and gone after Lex. At the mansion, Hamilton shows Lex a manuscript he found in a museum containing a Native American cure for the Nicodemus toxin. Lex plans to send it to his team in Metropolis just as Pete walks in. Pete shoots Hamilton in the shoulder and Hamilton drops the manuscript in the fire. Lex reaches in and grabs the book; Hamilton hits Pete and makes him drop the gun; Lex throws the manuscript to Hamilton; Hamilton rushes out of the room as Pete recovers the gun and fires four times at Hamilton as he rushes out the door. Pete turns the gun on Lex as Clark enters the room. Clark pretends to agree with Pete. He approaches Lex and pushes him hard against the wall, stunning him. Then he uses his super speed to disarm Pete and then knocks him out with a slap to the forehead. He helps Lex to his feet, explaining that it had been an act to stop Pete from killing him. When Clark asks Lex if Hamilton was really at the mansion, Lex doesn't give a straight answer.

Jonathan wakes with no memory of his illness. The doctors in Metropolis found the cure from the manuscript of Native American medicine. Pete and Lana are also recovering. Chloe goes to question Dr. Hamilton again, she discovers it empty. Lex informs Hamilton that he has destroyed all of his laboratory equipment and moved his experiments to Cadmus Labs, outside Metropolis, where he can keep a closer eye on him.

Clark takes Lana to the top of the windmill in Chandler's Field where she can see the Metropolis skyline.

Notes

Marny Eng is the stunt performer who did the backflip off the diving board as Lana Lang.

In an interview, Al Gough admits that the designers made the Metropolis shot from the windmill larger than it was supposed to be. The producers have mentioned that they consider Metropolis to be a three hours' drive away, but seemingly rarely adhere to this.

When Lana finds Clark sitting in the Torch, he is playing with a toy helicopter, specifically, Harold from the Thomas and Friends children's books.

In the original "Superman" comics, Jonathan Kent dies from a "fever plague" that nobody has had in 100 years and that Clark finds out about by reading a diary.

Clark's line, "With all my abilities, there's nothing I can do" over a comatose Jonathan Kent is a paraphrase of the line "With all my powers, I couldn't save him" a teenaged Clark says in the Superman: The Movie when his father dies.

Lana teasing Clark about whether he is "made of steel" is likely a reference to Superman's most famous nickname, the Man of Steel.

The flower spraying spores explosively was done twice in the sixties. Once in Star_Trek episode "This Side of Paradise" and once in The Outer Limits episode "Specimen: Unknown" several Years earlier. In fact, the plant props were the same ones, just repainted.

Locations

Quotes

Jonathan: (grabs phone) Hello, Jim. Yeah, listen to me: I have done nothing but give back to this community, and all anyone has ever done for me is screw me over! So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna come down there to that bank, and you're gonna have to turn my loan down right to my face! That way, I can see whether you still have a pair, or whether your wife keeps them in a drawer, too!

Pete: Wow. Drinking beer, mouthing off and counter-macking with your mom? Congratulations, Clark, your dad's regressed back to being a teenager.